RBS GAME bid gathers press momentum as store closures loom

Two more national newspapers have reported that The Royal Bank of Scotland is leading a consortium of bidders interested in acquiring The GAME Group.

Yesterday MCV reported that a Sunday Times story claiming that the state-owned bank was interested in saving GAME from collapse.

This morning The Telegraph reports that it is understood that RBS, one of the company’s six lenders, is leading a plan to buy a stake in Game after it is placed into administration today”.

It adds that people familiar with the matter have been left puzzled over why Game’s lenders refused to accept a fully-funded bid from OpCapita last week, which would have prevented it from falling into administration”.

The Daily Mail, meanwhile, reports that RBS is leading a group of lenders to stricken Game Group who are working on plans to buy the slimmed-down retailer out of administration”, adding that the RBS consortium is expected to roll the existing debt of about 85m into the new company”.

The idea of a state-owned retailer still seems far-fetched. Of course, the Government would prefer to see national retailers kept in business, but if RBS bankrolls GAME then what of the next retailer to hit trouble?

Whatever the outcome, it seems likely that many stores will be informed of their impending closure today as administrators PwC attempts to streamline the company ahead of its official entry into administration.